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Title: Translations of Shakuntala and Other Works

Author: Kaalidaasa

Translator: Arthur W. Ryder

Release Date: September 5, 2005 [EBook #16659]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRANSLATIONS OF SHAKUNTALA ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jayam Subramanian and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY
EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS

POETRY AND THE DRAMA

KALIDASA
TRANSLATIONS OF SHAKUNTALA & OTHER WORKS

BY ARTHUR W. RYDER

THIS IS NO. 629 OF _EVERYMAN'S
LIBRARY_. THE PUBLISHERS WILL
BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY TO ALL
APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED
AND PROJECTED VOLUMES ARRANGED
UNDER THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS:

TRAVEL . SCIENCE . FICTION
THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY
HISTORY . CLASSICAL
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
ESSAYS . ORATORY
POETRY & DRAMA
BIOGRAPHY
REFERENCE
ROMANCE

THE ORDINARY EDITION IS BOUND
IN CLOTH WITH GILT DESIGN AND
COLOURED TOP. THERE IS ALSO A
LIBRARY EDITION IN REINFORCED CLOTH

LONDON: J.M. DENT & SONS LTD.
NEW YORK: E.P. DUTTON & CO.

[Illustration:
KALIDASA
TRANSLATIONS
_of_ SHAKUNTALA
AND OTHER
WORKS, BY
ARTHUR. W.
RYDER.
UNIVERSITY
_of_ CALIFORNIA

LONDON & TORONTO
PUBLISHED BY J.M. DENT
&. SONS LTD & IN NEW YORK
BY E.P. DUTTON &. CO]

[Illustration: #Poets are the trumpets which sing to battle
poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world# Shelley]

FIRST ISSUE OF THIS EDITION 1912
REPRINTED 1920, 1928

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

INTRODUCTION

KALIDASA--HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS

I

Kalidasa probably lived in the fifth century of the Christian era.
This date, approximate as it is, must yet be given with considerable
hesitation, and is by no means certain. No truly biographical data are
preserved about the author, who nevertheless enjoyed a great
popularity during his life, and whom the Hindus have ever regarded as
the greatest of Sanskrit poets. We are thus confronte